Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane surrounded structures released by cells that have been recognized as potent vehicles of intercellular communication, both in prokaroytes and eukaryotes. This is due to their capacity to transfer proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, thereby influencing various physiological and pathological functions of both recipient and parent cells. In recent years, EVs have been intensely investigated as a novel and unique analyte to detect and differentiate among various chronic diseases and cancer as well as monitor their progression and possibly assess treatment outcome. However, only a very limited numbers of surface markers were explored in vivo on tumor derived EVs, making disease and cancer differentiation with EVs challenging. Accordingly, there is a need for a method for systematically characterizing EVs so that they can be used for such clinical and diagnostic applications.